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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25940569">Left Behind</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/theramblinrose/pseuds/theramblinrose'>theramblinrose</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Walking Dead (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Season 2, leaving the farm, thanks for the requests, what if Carol was the one that got left behind</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:29:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,147</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25940569</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/theramblinrose/pseuds/theramblinrose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Caryl, Oneshot.  Season 2 end.  People got left behind, even if that’s not exactly what they said.  Daryl was tired of leaving people behind, and he wasn’t ready to lose her.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Daryl Dixon/Carol Peletier</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Left Behind</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>AN:  This is just a little one shot based on a request.</p><p>I own nothing from The Walking Dead.  </p><p>I hope you enjoy!  Let me know what you think.</p><p>11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111</p><p>Daryl had stayed longer than the others.  He wasn’t sure why.  Something had kept him anchored there.  Something had made him feel like it was impossible to move.  </p><p>He’d watched the barn burn.  He’d watched the flames spreading to the grass and running out in different directions.  He’d watched the other vehicles pull off—some of them practically spinning their tires from trying to gun it too soon when they’d hit the road.  He’d seen the Walkers ambling in too many directions at once, confusing each other, because they were too stupid to choose a direction when there was so much going on.</p><p>Daryl hadn’t known what had made him stay there for so long, but something had—just as surely as if his feet had been nailed to the ground.</p><p>Finally, though, all the tail lights were gone.  The Walkers, without quite as much confusion, were starting to notice him.  He’d had to go or else he’d have been torn apart.  He’d cranked the bike, kicked off, and driven in the direction that everyone else had gone.</p><p>He’d gotten there after everyone—the spot on the highway where they’d been a dozen times before.</p><p>Just seeing the car with supplies still resting on the hood and a message to Sophia chalked on the windshield had nearly turned Daryl’s stomach inside out.  He’d known that it was probably excruciating for Carol—like lemon juice and salt in a wound.</p><p>Except he hadn’t seen Carol right away, and he’d had to ask if she was still tucked, somewhere, in the safety of a vehicle.</p><p>Daryl had stared at the message chalked on the windshield—he’d focused on the curve of the letters in Sophia’s name—and he’d recalled the tenderness with which Carol had selected the supplies that she wanted to leave for her daughter, while he’d heard the numbing buzz of Rick’s voice telling him the words that he’d simply felt unable to comprehend.  </p><p>Left behind.</p><p>Of course, that wasn’t exactly what they said.  That was never how they said it, right?  </p><p>Merle wasn’t left behind.  He’d been handcuffed to the roof for the good of the whole world, it seemed.  They’d intended to go back for him—right after they didn’t.  It had been an accident.  There had been nothing that could be done.</p><p>Sophia wasn’t left behind.  Rick had left her somewhere safe.  He’d left her to find her way back to the road, alone, through the woods.  He’d left her to kill Walkers somewhere else—somewhere she wasn’t.  He’d meant to go back for her, and she’d been told the way if he didn’t return.</p><p>Daryl had heard the words as they were spoken, but he had seemed somehow incapable of absorbing the words.  They’d bounced off of him.  They’d pelted him.  But he couldn’t quite absorb them.</p><p>Left behind.</p><p>But that wasn’t how they said it.  </p><p>She’d been taken down by Walkers.  She’d been killed.  Although, at the end of it all, nobody had actually seen her be killed.  Nobody had seen her torn apart.  Nobody had seen her die.  They’d seen her go down, though.  They’d seen her fall.  And nobody had picked her up, so she must be dead.</p><p>Left behind.</p><p>But that wasn’t how Rick said it.  </p><p>They had to go.  The herd was already on the move.  It was behind them.  It would catch up with them soon.  On the highway, standing still, they had no chance.  The farm was gone.  Razed to the ground.  It belonged to the dead now, and the dead were all that remained there.</p><p>She was either gone—moved on if she’d been alive when they left her behind—or she was dead.</p><p>There was no going back for her, but he’d never quite admitted to leaving her behind—to wanting to leave her behind.</p><p>All at once—staring at the chalked words on the windshield, recalling the tenderness behind even the placement of a jar of peanut butter, and hearing Rick’s words buzzing around him—Daryl had finally and fully understood why he’d stayed behind at the farm.  He’d understood what it was that had anchored him to that spot and made him feel like he couldn’t leave.</p><p>He couldn’t leave her behind.</p><p>And, even if his brain hadn’t known, at that moment, that leaving the farm was leaving her behind, his heart had.</p><p>It had simply known.</p><p>Daryl had, essentially, absolved Rick and everyone else of their sins as he’d left them behind—telling them not to wait.  If they could go on without Carol, they could go on without him, too.  He had little need of people like that in his life.</p><p>Riding against the herd wasn’t easy.  Daryl had to be careful not to spin out and wreck.  He had to be careful not to hit anything or to let fingers and hands snag him.  It gave him hope, though, to see the herd moving away from the farm.  </p><p>When he reached the farm again, finally, he tried to put the guilt out of his mind that he felt for having left it in the first place.  He’d felt drawn to stay there.  He’d felt anchored to that spot.  He’d left to save himself, but if he’d stayed…</p><p>Daryl pushed the thoughts out of his mind.  There wasn’t time or energy for thoughts about how things might have been different.  He stopped the bike and killed the engine.  It attracted Walkers.  It was good for getting out of there, but he was better off without it until he felt like truly moving on.  Daryl palmed his knife, instead of his crossbow, for the proximity of the Walkers.  Many of them, thankfully, had moved on.  The herd was thinning, even if it was still as thick as flies on shit.  </p><p>For a moment, he worked his way quietly through the Walkers.  He headed in the direction where they’d said she’d gone down—not quite the farm house.  Somewhere near where the vehicles had been parked.  As he went, by accident at first and later by choice, he went getting more and more covered over with Walker mess.  The more that he got on him, the less the Walkers noticed him, until he was practically walking through them like he was invisible.</p><p>They had left her behind.</p><p>And leaving her behind wasn’t even the worst of it.  </p><p>They had left her unarmed.  </p><p>Hershel had requested that they not carry guns.  Some of them had broken that rule, but they hadn’t given guns to those who were still learning how to shoot.  </p><p>Hershel hadn’t wanted them to carry other weapons, either.  The assorted knives and blades that they’d collected were in the back of one of those vehicles—one of the ones that had left her behind.  Some of them carried knives, like Daryl, but many of the women, in particular, were left defenseless because Rick had decreed, essentially, that they must follow Hershel’s rules.</p><p>When Daryl found her, because he had to find her, the first thing he would do when they were away from the Walkers would be to put a knife in her hands and teach her how to use it well.  She would never be so entirely vulnerable again, and she would never have to fear being left behind to die—not if he could help it.</p><p>The cars had been parked near a shed.  Daryl felt as drawn to the shed as if someone had been leading him there with a guide rope looped around his neck.  His heart pounded as he neared it—Walkers bumping into him without noticing him since he dripped with the blood, guts, and other bodily fluids of their fallen comrades.  It wasn’t until his hand was on the door—hanging open with a chain that had rusted through probably five years earlier—that he dared to use his voice.</p><p>“Carol?”  He called into the shed.  </p><p>He heard stirring inside.  He backed up and tightened his grip on his knife so that his messy hands wouldn’t make the handle slip.  He prepared for the same kind of wave to come out of the shed as had come out of the barn days before.</p><p>His heart, which had been pounding over the possibility of coming face to face with any number of Walkers, almost stopped entirely when she came out looking small and terrified.</p><p>Her eyes met his and, for half a second, he forgot where they were or what was happening.  </p><p>“You came back,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.</p><p>Daryl had never seen someone look at him with such reverence.  She always looked at him like that—like he was worth so much.  She even told him, once, how much he was worth in her opinion—a great deal, and every bit as much as any other man.  He’d never found the words, though, or the guts to tell her that he thought the same of her—she was worth a great deal to him, more than anyone else.</p><p>“Couldn’t lose you, too,” he said, echoing back to her the words that she’d once said to him.  He reached an arm out to her.  “Come on,” he said.  “We gotta go.”  </p><p>She stepped forward, and he wrapped his arm around her.  It felt strange to have her there, but it felt right, too.  It felt like she belonged there.  She fit perfectly in the space that nature had provided for her.  </p><p>“You OK?  You hurt?”  </p><p>She hummed in the negative.</p><p>“I got in there,” Carol said.  “As soon as I realized they left.  I closed the door.  I felt like you’d come.  I knew you would.”</p><p>“I was comin’,” Daryl offered.  “Sorry it took me so damn long.”  </p><p>Hugging her close to him, he was able to protect her as they walked back across the farm.  The Walkers had limited interest in him, and his scent helped to cover hers.  Once or twice, one got a little stirred up, but Daryl dropped them, purposefully smearing some of their mess onto Carol’s arms to help hide her from the dead.</p><p>“Get on the bike,” Daryl said as they neared it.  “We gotta go.”  </p><p>“We’re meeting the others?”  Carol asked.</p><p>“No,” Daryl said.  “They’re gone.”</p><p>“They just—left us behind?”  Carol asked.  </p><p>Daryl’s stomach tightened at the sound in her voice—the sound of hurt and betrayal.  She’d be heartbroken to know that, really, they’d left her behind.  The worst part about it was how easily, honestly, they’d left her behind.  Daryl wouldn’t hurt her like that.  He couldn’t.</p><p>“No,” he said.  “We left them.  I told ‘em to go.  Get the hell outta here.”</p><p>“Why would you do that?”  Carol asked, hesitating in her forward progress for a moment.  Daryl held tight to her arm, almost fearing she’d disappear if he loosened his grip at all.  </p><p>“Because we don’t need ‘em,” he said simply.  </p><p>“What are we going to do?”  Carol asked.  </p><p>Daryl laughed to himself.  It struck him that he hadn’t thought, until that moment, about what Carol was asking.  He’d only thought about finding her—knowing she was safe.</p><p>“We gonna keep going,” he said.  “Find—something.  Find a life.”  </p><p>“Alone?” Carol asked.  </p><p>“Long as we got each other, we’re not alone, right?”  Daryl asked.  “You’d rather—I helped you find the group?  Left you with them?”  </p><p>Carol stared at him a moment.  She shook her head.  She turned and started toward the bike again.  Daryl followed her.</p><p>“No,” she said.  “No—Daryl—I don’t…want you to ever leave me.”  </p><p>Daryl reached the bike and threw a leg over.  He raised up for her to get on behind him.  </p><p>He’d thought a half a dozen times or more about telling Carol how he felt.  He’d thought about telling her how much he cared about her and thought about her.  He’d thought about telling her that he’d like to have a life with her that was more than friends in a group.  He’d thought about telling her that he dreamed of really spending his life with her—however much he had left—and of finding some kind of life together.</p><p>But he’d never imagined that it could be so simple.  Although there was surely more to say, he felt like the hardest part had already been said.  He felt a strange peace settling over him.</p><p>“Don’t worry.  I won’t never leave you.”  He kicked the bike to life and got comfortable.  “Hold on to me,” he said.  He didn’t really have to say it, though.  Carol had already wrapped herself around him.  </p><p>She trusted him.  She didn’t care where they went, as long as they went there together.</p>
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